Status Effects
Status effects are unique ailments and conditions that can affect both enemies and units. Some of these effects are only available either to units or enemies. Some effects occur naturally while others are caused by certain attacks and abilities. Natural Effects Both units and enemies on the battlefield can have effects related to their morale. These effects can be applied only via random and unique conditions. Inspiration .|link=https://dead-ahead-zombie-warfare.fandom.com/wiki/File:Courageous_Ranger.png]]Inspiration (units with this effect are also referred to as lucky or courageous) is a positive effect that can be applied to units. Units that are afflicted have their movement speed increased by 20% and react quicker, improving their attack speed. The chances of it occurring is based on the fortune stat, with a higher fortune stat increasing the likelihood of the unit stepping out becoming inspired. This chance of inspiration is calculated by dividing a unit's fortune stat by 10 and using the result as a percentage. For example, a unit with 31 fortune will have a 3.1% chance of becoming inspired when they come out of the bus. Visually, units that are affected will have a faintly glowing, yellow laurel over their head and briefly glow yellow when they gain this effect. Individual units can get this effect randomly when they come out of the bus. Both Cap and Pepper with her special ability unlocked have the ability to apply this effect on all units on the battlefield at once. Cap can use it an unlimited amount of times as long as he stays alive. Pepper, on the other hand, can only use it once immediately after being sent out of the bus. When a courageous unit dies, the zombie they turn into will stay courageous as well. This will make them a slightly more dangerous enemy as they also keep the same buff bonuses as well. Fear .|link=https://dead-ahead-zombie-warfare.fandom.com/wiki/File:Fear_Medic.png]]Fear (units with this effect are also referred to as scared) is a negative effect that can be applied to units. Units that are afflicted suffer from worsened reaction speeds as demonstrated by units attacking enemies more later than usual, making occasional pauses in-between attacks, and idling for brief moments without doing anything. Visually, units that are affected will have a scared, screaming face over their head and glow purplish-blue. Some units are partially resistant to fear. The strength of each individual unit's fear resistance varies between one another. Units with the fear inspiration perk are the only ones with fear immunity but are capable of applying fear on their teammates as well, much like their enemies. Their fear inspiration is particularly strong which makes sending just two ore even just one of these units onto the battlefield a potential hindrance to other units' total DPS. Some units have resistance to fear with varying strengths. The stronger they are as a group or as an individual, the more enemies are needed to scare them. The inspiration buff can partially override the effects of fear as it improves a unit's reaction time. However, it doesn't provide any direct resistance against it. Individual units can get affected when they face a lot of enemies or particular zombies at once but fear is dependent on range. This range is fairly large, making it more common for melee units to become scared as they come into range of more enemies compared to ranged units who usually stay further back. Fear will stop affecting a unit once there are fewer enemies nearby or when units with the fear inspiration perk are slightly distant from them. Red Aura with red aura.|link=https://dead-ahead-zombie-warfare.fandom.com/wiki/File:Zombie_red_aura.jpg]]Red aura is a positive effect that can be applied to most enemies. Enemies that are afflicted generally have an increase in both damage and movement speed by 20-25%. This percentage varies for a majority of enemies, and the received buff is naturally rounded up to whole numbers. Necromancer and Twins, the two slowest non-stationary enemies in the game, simply have their base speed doubled. Visually, enemies that are affected will glow red. Sometimes, this effect can be obstructed by other enemies, and certain enemies themselves can hide it either within their larger frames or other visual effects. Individual enemies can get this effect randomly at the start of the mission or when they enter the battlefield. Sergeant and Undead are capable of randomly gaining or regaining the effect after getting back up. Enemies like Sapper and Armored Skeleton can degrade and randomly gain red aura as well. Certain enemies and most bosses are unable to gain this effect. Enemies emitting a red aura always grant an additional 15 points of rage on top of their usual amount when killed, totaling up into one number. In most cases, enemies affected by red aura are only slightly more dangerous than their regular counterparts. As a general guideline, this effect is only dangerous if it's applied to an enemy with damage higher than 20 and/or speed faster than 12. Damage Effects Both units and enemies are capable of delivering harmful damage effects that can affect combat in varying ways. Fire .|link=https://dead-ahead-zombie-warfare.fandom.com/wiki/File:Prisoner_burning.jpg]]Fire is a Damage over Time (DoT) debuff effect that can be used against both enemies and human units. Those that are afflicted take damage every second. Fire damage always fluctuates, dealing slightly more or slightly less of the documented amount of damage with each interval. Visually, those that are affected immediately darken and gradually turn darker and darker as their health diminishes, to the point that they char into a solid black color right before they die. Small fire particles rise from their feet to their torso and smoke particles emit from their bodies just like those from fire pools. Units with the fire resistance perk can completely negate fire damage. Enemies can either be fully or partially fire-resistant, with some capable of also completely negating damage while others take slightly less. Both units and enemies become fire-resistant during rainy weather, as both groups cannot take additional fire damage. Nitrogen is capable of healing the fire debuff off of affected units and enemies although they will remain appearing visibly darkened. Reversely, if Nitrogen stuns enemies or units, fire cannot deal damage or inflict the fire debuff until the stun wears off. Medkit and Chopper's manual ability can heal the damage caused by fire damage to temporarily extend their lifespan. Fire is most commonly created in the form of a fire pool. Only a level 13 Carlos with his special ability unlocked, Flamethrower, and Swat can deal fire damage directly with their weapons. Zombies will always walk mindlessly through them and inflict themselves with the fire debuff. Units and marauders will simply walk around fire pools to avoid unnecessary damage if they lack fire resistance. There are two exceptions, Mechanic and Crazy. While Mechanic can also avoid fire pools, he won't if he's currently charging in to perform his additional damage attack. Crazy, on the other hand, will always run through fire pools without fail. Fire has the capacity to entirely destroy bodies. Ultimately being killed with fire reduces its victim to a pile of ashes. Fire pools are capable of burning unit and marauder corpses on the floor to prevent them from turning into a zombie. This won't work if the corpse belonged to someone that possessed fire resistance. Both Sergeant and Undead can be burned to ashes to prevent them from reviving. A unique property of fire is that the effect can indefinitely stack. Each bullet from Swat or level 13 Carlos that happens to be one that would ignite an enemy will be treated as an individual source of fire, allowing for fire damage to essentially stack. Different fire pools can stack fire damage as well. However, Flamethrower's attack counts as a single source of fire and thusly, cannot stack the effects of the fire debuff oneself. Poison and Sonya.|link=File:Poisoned mechanic and sonya.png]]Poison is an enemy-exclusive DoT debuff effect that can be used against human units. Units that are afflicted take damage every second. Poison damage is a fixed amount, always dealing the same amount of damage with each interval. Visually, units that are affected have their health bar and damage display number turn blue. Units will curiously bleed out small blue droplets every time they take damage and small, floating blue particles will emanate from their bodies in similar fashion to enemies such as Dark Skeleton or Medic (Zombie). Only Epidemiologist and Slob are capable of inflicting the poison debuff and only units with the poison resist perk can completely negate the effect. There's no way to heal this effect. However, Medkit and Chopper's manual ability can heal the damage caused by poison damage to temporarily extend their lifespan. Technically, Glenn is the only unit capable of passing the effects of poison. This only occurs after he is killed for the first time as when he revives and gets back up, he will have cured himself of the effects. However, this doesn't prevent him from contracting the poison debuff again. Stun .|link=https://dead-ahead-zombie-warfare.fandom.com/wiki/File:Ram_stunned_by_willy.jpg]] Stun is a damage effect that can be used against both enemies and human units. Those that are afflicted will have their movement inhibited in general. There are two forms of the stun effect; the first is an electricity-based paralyzing stun that causes a very short, full movement halt and the second is a severe slowdown that affects movement and attack speed. Nitrogen, Willy, and Jailer are the only units with the stun perk. Blue, Blue Runner, and Big Blue are the only enemies with the ability to stun. Willy and Jailer both utilize the first form of the stun effect while Nitrogen and all the listed enemies utilize the second form. Nitrogen's stun duration can be upgraded while everyone else has a fixed stun duration. Visually, enemies affected by Willy or Jailer's stun effect will flash a cyan color, Cephalopods being the only exception. Both enemies and units affected by Nitrogen's stun effect will glow a bright white. This also occurs for units who are stunned by enemies. There is no way for enemies to negate the stun effect caused by Willy or Jailer unless they possess full immunity against ranged damage and/or melee attacks to prevent being stunned in the first place. There is no way for units to negate the stun effect caused by enemies. Nitrogen cannot stun units and enemies that are currently on fire and will instead remove the fire debuff. The enemies' stun cannot extinguish units that are on fire even though they appear to be the same effect visually. Knockback Knockback is a damage effect that can be used against both enemies and human units. Those that are afflicted will be pushed some distance away from their attacker. Units with the undocumented knockback resistance perk and enemies with the knockback resistance ability can either completely or partially negate knockback. Units under the heavyweight class, most bosses, and certain zombies are unable to be knocked back at all. Some units, most of which are in the damager class, and some zombies have varying amounts as to how much knockback they suffer. Many units and enemies can cause knockback. While most units deal knockback with their critical hits, some can deal it with every attack regardless. The same applies to enemies that deal knockback but there are also very few enemies who can only cause knockback with their regular attacks but not their critical hits. Psy is the only enemy who can cause a varying amount of knockback depending on how close a unit is to him when he performs his psi attack. Trivia .|link=https://dead-ahead-zombie-warfare.fandom.com/wiki/File:Chopper_poisoned.jpg]] * Before update 3.0.0, the poison debuff used to turn the health bar and damage display number of poisoned units green instead of blue. This was likely changed to prevent confusion due to the numbers that appear when human units get healed being the exact same green color, a change also made in the same update. * If Glenn is inspired, he will always keep the effect after reviving, meaning inspiration is never lost even after death (as proven by the courageous zombies previously mentioned). Glenn also has a chance to revive with the inspiration effect if he didn't have it before. * Fear can affect Princess. However, since she doesn't attack anything and never stops moving, it doesn't have any perceivable effect on her. Category:Game Mechanics Category:Units Category:Enemies